The present invention relates to a method of picking up stacked blanks.
In particular, the present invention relates to a method of picking up stacks of precut blanks off a supporting surface or platform, and feeding the stacks successively to a user machine loading station.
The present invention is particularly suitable for use on cigarette packing machines to which the following description refers purely by way of example.
Stacks of precut blanks from which to form cigarette packets are normally fed to the packing machine by means of pallets on which the stacks are, loaded next to one another in a substantially orderly arrangement known beforehand, and from which the stacks are subsequently removed successively by means of a pickup device. This comprises a powered pickup head designed to positively engage each stack, and controlled by a drive unit in turn comprising a memory unit in which are stored the size of the blanks, the theoretical arrangement of the stacks on the pallet, and the position of the pallet in relation to the pickup device.
As they move over to the packing machine, however, the pallets are subject to jolting, so that the stacks slip slightly out of the original position on the pallet and, as a result, are picked up incorrectly by the pickup device and fed on to the packing machine in a position impairing correct operation of the machine.